Home Renovations – The Barracks
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MAHAH group members Andrew and Elaine Teeling have an incredibly exciting project on their hands. ‘The Barracks’ originally belonged to Andrew’s parents, so the young couple decided to buy the 200 year old house with a view to renovating it and eventually renting it out as an Air B&B.
The impressive stone building was originally an RIC Barracks in the early 1900’s and is one of the few remaining in Ireland. Many of the original RIC buildings were burnt to the ground. The couple, who spent the last 5 years building their forever home at a different location, oversaw the majority of that build themselves.
Elaine says “ it was a huge task juggling work and family commitments, however we did it. It was stressful but we enjoyed the challenge and when this opportunity with ” The Barracks” arose we were excited. We have no solid proof or documentation but we believe the existing two story house was once a single story dwelling by the stonework and perhaps it was converted to a 2 story when it was obtained by the British army, so it is probably more than 200 years old. There is a preservation order on the house therefore we have had to be mindful of this. We were thrilled to discover such beautiful stonework underneath the lime plaster and felt it was too nice to cover up again. We have a builder who specialises in heritage projects on board as we felt it was important to have him working on the project.”
“We stripped the majority of it ourselves and the only real problem we encountered was woodworm. Thankfully the house was not damp even though before we started stripping it out, it looked really bad. The chimneys all had to be relined as we had guessed would be the case, so no huge surprises for us there. The roof had most of its slates intact however there was some water damage from a chimney. It has been a lot of hard work but we feel it is so worth it, we have got so much encouragement from people out walking on the racecourse that the house is situated on. It’s an idyllic setting and we hope to rename this beautiful building and set up an AIR BnB so lots of people can enjoy it’s beauty. We are hoping to have it completed by the end of this year (2023) and ready for Air BnB in the new year. We will enjoy it ourselves for a break beforehand!”
Best of luck to Elaine and Andrew. We will look forward to checking back in with them in a few months to see how things are progressing. Watch this space!
If you have a renovation, DIY or Upcycling project you would like to share, please drop us a line at – hello@mahah.ie